Region/Version Role Reversals

2016-08-24 05:04:21 pm

It's common knowledge that in most speedgames, the most popular version to run is the Japanese version, as well as unpatched, 1.0 versions of games. This is mostly because of glitches. However, are there any reversals to this? Are there any games where PAL (the usual slowest version) is better for speedrunning than Japanese? As well as any games where newer versions than unpatched are faster? I would like to know.

Thread title:

buttfield

2016-08-24 08:22:24 pm

m e m e s ?

If you find any faster PAL versions, they'll probably be specific translations.
The only example I know off the top of my head where Japanese isn't preferable would be Metroid Prime, but the faster version is the NTSC 1.0.
That's not much help, I know, but I figure it might draw out some more replies.

bmn

Edit history:

bmn: 2016-08-25 09:12:17 am

bmn: 2016-08-25 09:11:47 am

2016-08-25 09:10:52 am

I believe PAL is marginally faster in real time in Metal Gear Solid 2 on PS2. NTSC versions (the language doesn't make much difference) are marginally faster throughout (codec skipping for example runs at 60/1.001 lines per second vs 50), and the Fortune fight has a shorter "autoscroll" time. However, PAL has far less graphical slowdown in general, but particularly in the rain on Tanker, during Fortune, and most notably during Rays where it can save about a minute real time on Extreme. There's also a significantly faster PAL-only Fatman strategy.

Game time, NTSC is still far faster, though.

Melodia

2016-08-25 06:16:08 pm

I remember a game, though not which, run in a marathon recently where it was either French or Spanish was the fastest because of text, but it might have been a portable or PC game where there's no PAL shennanigans.

ymh

2016-08-25 07:56:38 pm

Quote from Melodia:

I remember a game, though not which, run in a marathon recently where it was either French or Spanish was the fastest because of text, but it might have been a portable or PC game where there's no PAL shennanigans.

Isn't Deux Ex: Human Revolution fastest in French language ? I think they mentioned that during SGDQ or something.

GhostKingG1

2016-08-26 05:16:41 am

Why Hello it is Me

Based on what I've heard:

Western versions of Twilight Princess are faster than Japanese because JP lacks an important glitch, and certain PAL languages are sliiightly faster than English.

Xenoblade Chronicles is fastest on PAL Virtual Console, for whatever reason, even over NA Virtual Console.

dunnius

Edit history:

dunnius: 2016-08-26 09:35:17 pm

2016-08-26 09:34:19 pm

Intruding N313 and F014

The PS2 versions of Metal Gear 1 and 2 are faster on PAL. Also, the PS2 versions run faster than the MSX2 version because they don't emulate the lag.

LotBlind

2016-08-27 04:42:52 am

The run Melodia likely meant is probably Skyrim: it was either French or Spanish, yes.

There's probably more "reversals" than you'd think simply because, for SDA at least, only English versions were accepted at one point so people may not have looked into others that much. Cases where v. 1.0 is too unstable as well.